Council and homeless application-urgent

Hi,

I have been desperatly trying to look for another private rented accomodation as my landlord is selling up. But me and my partner are having no luck as im bankrupt and noone seems to want to accept us due to this I have three children and we have a three weeks left to find somewhere. If we cannot does anyone know if we would be considered to make a homeless application to local council? my parnter only earns 10,000 a year and i dont work as youngest is 1. I am aware that we would be put into tempoary accomodation until somewhere could be found for us. But what happens to all your furniture and belongings does anybody know that has been through all this? Can anyone tell us also how long they have been in temporary accomodation until something is found? many thanks

hi,
i was told the council puts your stuff into storage for you - 'for a fee'. Luckily i found a private rent in time and didnt need to go into temporary accommodation.

Plus i know people that have gone bankrupt and still privately rent.....think you just need to be honest with the agent. Also, if you can provide glowing references from previous landlords, it all goes in your favour.

i had a notice to quit in september last year and applied to the council, they put me on the list but not as a homeless case, the council told me i have to wait for the landlord to take it to court to get a possesion order then once he's done that then they will get the baliffs to remove me and then when me and the children are on the street i have to phone the council and only then will i be classed as homeless and they will put us i temporary accomodation until they can find me somewhere secure to live. so this might apply in your case also depending on your councils policies.

This happened to us. We couldn't find new private rental housing as our credit rating, earnings etc weren't high enough. We applied as homeless and got a temp flat within a couple of weeks (all areas are different, if it's a city you may end up in a hostel). Although you might have a few months of disruption you're likely to be offered long term council housing within a couple of years.

As for furniture - we had to deal with storage issues ourselves, but got the flat fairly fast. If you have friends willing to help out perhaps they can put some bits in a spare room/shed?

Good luck. As bad as it seems now you may be on the first step to a council property and a bit of security.

I have been desperatly trying to look for another private rented accomodation as my landlord is selling up. But me and my partner are having no luck as im bankrupt and noone seems to want to accept us due to this I have three children and we have a three weeks left to find somewhere. If we cannot does anyone know if we would be considered to make a homeless application to local council? my parnter only earns 10,000 a year and i dont work as youngest is 1. I am aware that we would be put into tempoary accomodation until somewhere could be found for us. But what happens to all your furniture and belongings does anybody know that has been through all this? Can anyone tell us also how long they have been in temporary accomodation until something is found? many thanks

yes go straight to ur council and make an appointment to speak to the homeless team (or call them to make an appointment) then take along ur letter stating that u have 3 weeks to get out of flat, as that is a priority for homeless application, so u will need to go thro the homless route with ur advisor, they will then send u a letter within 5 days to advise if u have been accepted as homeless, altho if u have nowere to stay at that point they can arrange temp accommodation for u and kids, in my council u need to call up 3 companies that housing recommends and get 3 quotes which need to be faxed to the housing, they then choose the cheapest quote and they then call u and letu know a date and time that ur furniture will be taken to storage (its usually free or a small fee), ur items can be stored for as long as u r in temp accommodtion or until u get a flat, so please dont worry, but as soon as u get ur homeless letter this is the key, ur letter is ur lifeline basically, as use this letter to then photocopy and apply to every housing association in ur area as councils take months and months to offer houses, so since u have ur homless letter u will be prirory and top of the list in most associations plus u will get offered a better quality home with an association but it will still be ur house and not private, and if u did go back to work the rent willbe like a council house rent, much cheaper than a private let, good luck x

I have been desperatly trying to look for another private rented accomodation as my landlord is selling up. But me and my partner are having no luck as im bankrupt and noone seems to want to accept us due to this I have three children and we have a three weeks left to find somewhere. If we cannot does anyone know if we would be considered to make a homeless application to local council? my parnter only earns 10,000 a year and i dont work as youngest is 1. I am aware that we would be put into tempoary accomodation until somewhere could be found for us. But what happens to all your furniture and belongings does anybody know that has been through all this? Can anyone tell us also how long they have been in temporary accomodation until something is found? many thanks

yes you can, you are considered homeless as soon as your landlord gives you notice...my old landlord did it to us 3 years ago and we went straight to the council. we found ourselves another private house to rent and the council helped us get it (they paid the first months rent and the damage deposit) we were on HB though as were on benefits so the rent they'd of helped with anyway...dunno about your situation...we did have to pay back the deposit though at the rate of £10 a month lol.
we did have the option of going on the council list and going to a b and b in the meantime...but, my eldest has special needs so that would have been total chaos, he'd of had to go into care for that time i reckon ...hence why we found a place ourselves.
they come and inspect the place every 3 months and kick our current landlord into touch (quite a bit )

i had a notice to quit in september last year and applied to the council, they put me on the list but not as a homeless case, the council told me i have to wait for the landlord to take it to court to get a possesion order then once he's done that then they will get the baliffs to remove me and then when me and the children are on the street i have to phone the council and only then will i be classed as homeless and they will put us i temporary accomodation until they can find me somewhere secure to live. so this might apply in your case also depending on your councils policies.

Kelly x

must depends on which council you are in? cos i was counted as homeless from the start :/

The best thing you can do is speak to someone from your local council as they all run things differently.

Where I live you go see the council when you are facing homelessness (so when you know you are going to be made homeless) and they deal with your application there and then. Then they decide if they can help you, and how they can help you, and then if they can help you they give you a call before you ar actually made homeless and offer you a choice of properties (depending on your place on the list that day, and what they have in the housing pool that day)and thats it. If all they have in the housing pool is privately rented houses that is all you will be offered. I was incredibly lucky as the day my name came up (2 weeks after I made my application) I was first on the list and was offered a choice of 6 properties, 5 of which were council or housing association. And you dont have to be on benefits to get housed, just have a low income. In fact if you earn too much for hb, but not enough for a private rent, you are given virtually top priority as they tend to offer hb claimants private rented as they can afford it!

However, under my councils old system I wasnt deemed homeless until I had literally no roof over my head, and even then all they would offer is bed and breakfast while they spent weeks assessing your application.

As for furniture, I didnt have this problem, but my sister had to arrange and pay for storage herself, her council offered no help at all.